Radical Speculation

The start of a new decade feels like an opportunity, a beginning. Part of forming goals is speculating about possibilities. In a time when we’re offered a few very specific accepted narratives, letting the mind run free in all directions to see what ideas eventually take over and spin more ideas, could begin to crack the rigidity of fixed mental habits. More radical speculation might loosen the grip of 20^th century conventions of thought that are holding new ideas back. The banning of a ted talk by Rupert Sheldrake is a perfect example.

https://youtu.be/JKHUaNAxsTg  

Speculation is seeing through time, and travels in both directions. The alternative narratives some call conspiracy theories are speculation about the parts of a past issue that are left out of the marketed version because some facts don’t fit the comfortable narrative of the status quo. When new facts are known, descriptions and explanations must be changed.  Now some schools are rejecting textbooks as more comprehensive records of history are integrating the experiences and accomplishments of the previously marginalized. Skills of speculation can be honed by projects where students investigate the areas where facts may have been lost, thinking for themselves instead of reading and listening.

The speculation on the future looks at what’s happening now and what it points toward. It is an act of imagination and generator of theory. In the category of science fiction termed speculative, many authors have imagined in fiction what would happen if negative trends in the world continue. George Orwell, Margaret Atwood and William Gibson are just a few of the authors whose books create scenarios that build on present tendencies.

I’ve heard brain researchers say the brain’s purpose is prediction and certainly where survival is concerned, knowing what type of patterns lead to danger and what is the next step of a procedure reflect the ongoing anticipatory stream of consciousness we all experience. The twentieth century technique for problem solving too often looked at the issue in isolation often creating new problems for the part of the picture not considered. Looking at the interrelated whole will be the best technique for the 21^st century, avoiding the need to solve problems created by isolated solutions.

Seeing is understanding. To build perception of wholes the best way is looking at art.

Recently my local paper reprinted an article from the New York Times about new research that showed going to museums increased longevity. With the health benefits to encourage people to see more art the ability to see wholes instead of parts might grow as well. A widespread evolution of mind is a necessary precondition to solving problems that require considering the big picture.

Bookmark 2019

Some of you may recognize MICA's fox building from the back, where the gargoyle's tail points to my classroom  Fox210

Joy

Observing joy is feeling it. Whether it’s a child bouncing beside a parent or the clumsy cuteness of a puppy, we smile at the full saturation of aliveness, feel the lift in our own bodies.

Watching Lamar Jackson’s pure joy playing football is as exhilarating as watching great tennis. It’s hard not to be infected by his level of involvement and be thrilled by the originality and thorough mastery of his game. We’re infected by his focus and enthusiasm. Wherever we find it, admiration points toward joy.

Joy needn’t be passive. What psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi called flow is available to everyone getting deep into what they’re doing. Full attention stimulates the best brain chemistry whatever the thing we love happens to be, and though it often is, it doesn’t have to be serious work. I’ve come across many philosophers both religious and secular that say something to the effect that action is holy. Spinoza won my heart when he said that cheerfulness is always good because it increases the person’s ability to act. For him anxiety was all about ideas without the energy to act on them. Any action stimulates dopamine, the chemical of focus and pleasure.

On a small scale fast paced games are a good way to achieve one=pointedness. After reading Jill McGonigal‘s book, “Reality’s Broken, Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World” ,I decided I needed a video game in my life so settled on Tetris. I was immediately happy about the level of unbroken attention it demanded of me. That meant I was getting dopamine, and as the game got faster, the reactions were quicker. If I lasted long enough I could even achieve ta flow state in this minor version of self-improvement, When full attention is directed outward, the loss of self-consciousness is a great relief, and may be an important component of joy, attention rushing out to embrace the world. It’s an easily available adjustment to brain chemistry. So now, when I’m painting or drawing and my attention dips, I take a Tetris break, It clears my mind and pumps up my dopamine and I’m ready to get back into my work.

Joy, Peace and Goodwill through the holidays and into 2020.

Mock

Suspending Judgment

“All authority is an obstruction.”   J. Krishnamurti

One thing that can be crippling to creativity is getting bogged down in external ideas of right and wrong, best and better. This global conditioning focused on right and wrong answers creates anxiety about following the guidance of personal intuition. No attention is given to training this perception of the whole picture that is led by the sense of what’s missing or what doesn’t belong or as Nobel prize winner David Bohm said, by a sense of what fits. Looking at art and talking about how it affects you is excellent training in visual understanding.

 In more than forty years of teaching I’ve watched many a piece fresh with personal vision be sabotaged by the comment of someone else with different standards. Humans only have their own experience to go on, but it’s time to jettison the assumption that our experience builds the same outlook as others. If you grow up in a world where cheating and deceiving are all around you then you’ll assume everyone is a liar and a cheat and treat them that way. Marcus Aurelius may have been the first to observe our tendency to condemn our own faults in others. At the same time in China the I Ching was saying the same thing.

To suspend judgment opens an opportunity to see things as they are and examine our own lapses from harmony. If we can deprogram ourselves from judgment we’re in a position to actually observe what each person has to offer. Every individual can only develop by their own pattern of growth. As personal decisions accumulate unique style shines in its own way.  Judgment is useful in one way, everything you would criticize in others is something you yourself possess. If you see your own errors through this then your future observations will be cleared.

In the mid twentieth century, the philosopher Susanne Langer wrote many books about the importance of human feeling in organizing the mind. She felt that art was the best expression of human psychology and having beautiful things around was the best way to educate values. Elaine Scarry has followed up more recently with her book “On Beauty and Being Just” describing how many ways beauty cultivates what’s best in us. A program called Visual Teaching Systems goes into underprivileged areas and gets kids to talk about paintings starting with the question - what’s going on here. The ability to imagine answers to questions with no wrong answers stimulates the brain to such a degree that their test scores improved in their other subjects. Studies in intelligence have shown that most intelligent thinking happens when both hemispheres are working together rather than one dominating. Talking about art strengthens the communication between them while exercising imagination and creative thinking. Shifting our attention from judging and evaluating takes pressure off and let’s the mind extend its boundaries. Bringing art to everyone coulddevelop another dimension of intelligience that may be up to the problems of the 21^st century.